History of VOC huts

Note: The first four sections were copied from The History and Finance of the Varsity Outdoor Club Cabins (January 1977).
Authors: Berni Claus, treasurer & Julie Ourom, Vice-President

Hollyburn Cabin

Map 1: Local map of Hollyburn Cabin

Little is known today (in 1977) about the earliest cabin which the VOC used. It was located on Hollyburn Mountain, in the "Cabin Area" marked on Map 1. It was the nucleus around which the club was established in 1917, and provided a base for hiking, skiing and mountaineering trips in the surrounding area.

Grouse Cabins

By 1929, club members had decided that they wanted a larger and more permanent center for their activities, and so they built a cabin on Grouse Mountain. Named the "Vee-O-Cee" Cabin, it was located in the treed area to the east of the present "Cut" ski run. A few years later, as club membership continued to increase, another room was added to the existing structure, and, by the mid-1930's, the club acquired another cabin, the Schuss Inn, which was located nearby. However, by the 1940's, both of these cabins had become so dilapidated that further repairs were deemed impractical. Thus, the decision was again made to relocate. After much searching, a location was found on Mount Seymour. Prior to and during construction of the Seymour Cabin, the club rented another cabin on Grouse, as they had sold the Grouse Mountain cabins to partially finance the new one.

Seymour Cabin

Map 2: Local map of Seymour Cabin

The cabin on Mount Seymour was a much bigger undertaking than any of the previous ones had been. It was much larger than the Hollyburn and Grouse cabins, as it could accomodate some 150 persons. The cabin was built on a site off Mountain Road, and just below the ski area, as shown in Map 2.

The cabin was designed by Fred Lasserre of the UBC School of Architecture. Construction started in the late 1940's, with the completion of the new Mount Seymour Highway (Mountain Road). A club member, Don Manning, organized the work on the cabin, which, despite numerous construction difficulties, was completed by the winter of 1949. Over the following decade, the VOC added on to and improved the cabin, in order to keep it in line with members' needs and current building regulations. It remained the focus of activities for the club until the mid-1960's

Sale of the Seymour Cabin

In 1965, the VOC decided to sell their Seymour Cabin and moved to the Whistler area. The cabin had been estimated to be worth about $21,000. All of the negociations for the sale were handled by Keith Moore, the VOC treasurer at the time. His hard work over a period of several years enable the club to sell the cabin.

Moore approached many different parties, and after much negotiations, he finally found a buyer, a local company which wanted it for recreational use of its employees. The arrangements for the sale were nearly completed when the Parks Board stepped in and imposed a set of rather stringent conditions on the sale of the cabin. In doing so, it effectively narrowed down the list of prospective purcharsers to only itself.

Another period of prolonged negociations followed, and in 1969, the cabin was finally sold to them for $12,000. This money was used to pay off the A.M.S. loan on the Whistler Cabin.

Whistler Cabin

Site of Whistler Cabin

The Whistler Cabin was the club's biggest project (by 1977). It replaced the cabin on Mount Seymour, which was located in an area which did not offer scope for the wide variety of activities that a club the size of the VOC needed and engaged in. The Whister area was perceived as fulfilling these requirements. Since the club had never before been involved in such a grand undertaking, it needed a great deal of help in order to make the dream of a cabin at Whistler the reality. In this, they relied heavily on old members of the club, as well as on other individuals. These people donated their invaluable advice and expertise, as well as money, materials and labour.

Choice of Site

After much searching throught the Whistler area, the site for the cabin was finally chosen. This was "Block N of Lot 7179, Group 1, N.W.D." It was located in the area set apart for clubs' cabins, and was near the proposed terminus for the ski development.

Construction

Whistler Cabin under Construction (1965)

In 1965, Byron Olson, a past president of the club, and a recent graduate if the UBC School of Architecture, offered to design the cabin for the club. After some problems arranging the lease, and after UBC President MacDonald had stepped in to cut some red tape with regards to the site acquisition, the initial problems were solved, and the stage was set.

Construction began on Labour Day weekend, 1965. The foundations and framing were soon completed, and by Hallowe'en of that year, the shell of the cabin was completed (enough to hold a party!). All the work, with the exception of the installation of the heating system, was done by volunteer VOC labour.

In the next two years, the interior of the cabin was finished. In 1969, a major drive took place, and two dormitories were built. This resulted in the cabin being completed to the satisfaction of most VOC'ers, who were used to "roughing it". However, the lack of running hot water and indoor plumbing in it resulted in it not being attractive to the majority of downhill skiers, and thus not many used the cabin.

Ownership & 1980 Referendum

After a few good years, the cabin's situation started to deteriorate: the beginning of the development of the Whistler Ski Resort aside, continuously increasing utilities costs and the lack of proper maintenance (mostly due to the cost of utilities) were contributing to its decline. By 1973, it was decided that continued maintenance of the cabin wasn't compatible with the vision of the Club, and that the costs were becoming too much of a burden for the VOC to manage on their own. In 1974, the VOC made an preliminary agreement with the newly-formed UBC Ski Club for co-ownership of the cabin. However, the AMS blocked this and a later agreement for various reasons and, by July 1975, had told the VOC that they didn't have ownership of the cabin and, consequently, weren't in a position to ask for compensation. Shortly after, the AMS transfered the rights of the cabin to the Ski Club.

1980 VOC Referendum Flyer

Note: The following external links are pdf files from Ubyssey Archives (~2 - 4 MB).

Frustrated by this chain of events, in March 1977, the VOC sued the AMS for ownership of the cabin in AMS Student Court. After one month of court proceedings, the Student Court ruled for the VOC and fined the AMS the original cost estimate of the cabin ($30,000) as compensation. The victory was short-lived; by October 1978, the AMS ruled that the Student Court was out-of-order and that the AMS didn't have to pay anything to the VOC. Consequently, in February 1979, the VOC filed an external lawsuit against the AMS. In January 1980, the VOC proposed an out-of-court settlement with the AMS where the VOC would drop the lawsuit in return for receiving the original compensation. The AMS couldn't come to an agreement and decided to have a student referendum on the subject. From March 11 - 13, 1980, fellow students voted in the referendum. The proposal was as follows:

VOC is requesting compensation only for the materials which it originally provided for the Whistler Cabin. The $30,000 requested in this referendum will be used in four ways:

1. To upgrade the Burton Hut on Garibaldi Lake.
2. To make repairs to the Tenquille Lake Cabin.
3. To make temporary repairs to the existing cabin at McGillvray Pass.
4. To construct a new cabin at McGillvray Pass.

With an ~ 90% Yes vote, the AMS relunctly paid the initial compensation after 3 and a half years of tedious and excruciating efforts by VOCers. And so ends the infamous story of the Whistler Cabin.

McGillivray Pass Cabin

Is slowly sinking into the bog in which it was built

Neve Hilton

The Neve Hilton once stood somewhere near the edge of the North Pitt Glacier, about half way between Elfin Lakes and Garibaldi Lake on the Garibaldi Neve Traverse. The hut is missing and presumed to be destroyed by snow creep and likely never to be seen again until it emerges from the bottom of the glacier.

Burton Hut

Originally named Sphinx Hut, the Burton Hut was built in 1969 at Sphinx Bay on Garibaldi Lake.

First recorded in 1942, VOCers used to stay over at Taylor Creek cabin and from 1955 to 1965, at Airways cabin, near Battleship Island while on skiing trips at Garibaldi Lake. However, after 1965, the Parks Branch blocked access to their winter shelters to the club. In January 1969, during a skiing trip at Himmelsbach Hut, a few VOCers decided that the club needed a new hut. At Sphinx. By the end of Spring, during the VOC General meeting, the idea was proposed and passed almost unanimously.

Over the summer of '69, VOCers worked on the new hut and by the end of August, the prefabricated hut was ready for transport. Over the course of a week, the sections of the hut were trucked and air lifted to its final destination on the east end of Garibaldi Lake. Once there, a team of VOCers placed the various pieces together and completed the structure one week later.

Shortly after completion, the Sphinx Hut was renamed the Burton Hut in honor to Roland Burton for the planning and building of Sphinx Hut.

In August 2006 the Burton Hut was rennovated. The end walls, windows and door were replaced and a layer of insulation was added inside the hut to keep it warmer. New furniture was constructed including a new cooking counter and a new extra wide sleeping bench, similiar to the one that had been installed in the Brew Hut the summer before. BC Parks kindly paid for the transportation of the materials to the site.

Brew Hut

The first incarnation of the Brew Hut was built in 1982 near Mt. Brew, and destroyed by snow creep shortly thereafter. In 1984 the remenants of the hut were moved uphill to a new location, and the hut was rebuilt at the new location using the old materials. Because some of the beams were destroyed by the snow creep, Brew Hut II is slightly smaller than the original structure. Brew Hut II was damaged in the winter of 1998-1999, an unusually heavy snow year, prompting a plan to replace the hut at a nearby location that is scoured by the wind. Brew Hut III was completed in the summer of 2005 and Brew Hut II was dismanted for firewood later that fall. In September 2006 the non-combustible garbage from Brew Hut II and leftover construction materials from Brew Hut III were flown out by helicopter.

Harrison Hut

Initially called the Meager hut during the planning phase in 1983, the hut was renamed the Harrison Hut shortly after Julian Harrison (VOC President 1973-1974) was tragically killed in an avalanche in California in April of that year.

Brian Waddington Hut

The Brian Waddington Hut was built in the summer of 1998 in Phelix Creek, north of Birkenhead Lake. The hut structure was provided free of charge by the BC Workers compensation board as a project for rehabilitating injured workers, so it is much more luxurious than any of the other VOC huts. The VOC built the foundations, did the on site installation and paid helicopter costs, which amounted to about $20,000 because the hut was hugely overweight.

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